May 31, 2004

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!

Bill's driving in the parade in Westport to promote his upcoming Concours d'elegance, and most of you are probably out enjoying the holiday with barbeques and other traditions (Brian and Karen are hosting a big wiffle game I think). My goal is to clean up my apartment, start my homework for my two summer classes, update the new online center for ASTC volunteers, work on the virtual chautauqua site, put some energy into OSN2004, work on my hat, and maybe take a walk... but we'll see how far I get today...

And look, another of the cool people in my knitting group has started a knitting blog. Go Janice! She's working on the most gorgeous cardigan with a very complicated looking pattern...

May 30, 2004

Mean Girls

Calling someone fat will not make you any thinner.
Calling somebody stupid will not make you any smarter.
And you've got to stop calling each other sluts and whores.
It just makes it all right for guys to call you that.
-Math teacher Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey) addressing a student assembly of all the junior girls

Thank you to Emy who organized today's outting to Mean Girls (which I've been dying to see for weeks!)

Emy, Ilona and I ducked out of knitting group early (which was too bad because we were 3 of the 4 people there this week) and treated ourselves to some wonderful summer movie fun.

I absolutely loved it and am SO glad not to be in high school anymore!! Plus its hard not to want to see movies written by SNL's Tina Fey!

I wonder if Betty and Liz have seen it yet...

Check out the web site for the movie as well -- my horoscope on it says:"Capricorn, I don't know what to tell you. i think you should drop out of school and be a runaway, go to Hollywood or Tokyo or something. That would be crazy. I mean, I'm sure it would have a terrible ending, but I don't think your life is going to leave you many options. Maybe try marrying a Leo? This week, concentrate your hard work on making yourself better for others." Huh.

Baseball Scouting Trip

In order to get ready for our ALASC trip to the baseball game on June 13th (RSVP today!), I went and scouted the SJ Giant's today.

I learned that we should meet outside the (one and only) gate, perhaps under the big schedule. Our table in the BBQ area will have a sign reserving it for us, so we'll be able to round everyone up there. It gets quite hot at the stadium, so everyone should be sure to bring hats and sunscreen!

May 29, 2004

Yarn and Children's Books

mmm... purr...

Knitting Arts, the wonderful yarn store in Saratoga, is having a 40%-off sidewalk sale this weekend, so I bought a few lovely fuzzy things for my stash this morning...

Then I went and worked all day at the Campbell Library (2 hours adults, 3 hours kids), and also checked out a large pile of Easy Reader books to review for my first assignment of my Children's Literature class (yes, summer school has begun!) The best part of the day was getting to spend one of the hours on the adult desk with my fellow-intern Amytha (the host of the Altered Book Round Robin I just participated in).

Belly Button Piercing

So I learned about Betty getting her belly button pierced from Mom's comment on my post yesterday about Betty's birthday. A friend of Betty's took this photo, which I just had to post because of the look on her face :)

A surprising number of my friends here have their belly buttons pierced as well (and one even has her tongue pierced, which always surprises me each time I see it -- definitely breaking the stereotypes of librarians-to-be I guess :))

But I'm impressed that Betty did it! A great way to celebrate being 18! You're so cool!

Happy Birthday Betty!

Betty is 18 today!!!!!
Here's a picture of her at school last week when I went to visit her. She's already registered 146 people for her big voter registration project! And she's graduating one week from today! Wow!!

May 27, 2004

The Confusion

Well, since my net connection was down all morning, I used it as an excuse to finish up The Confusion, the second in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. We rejoin our friends Jack Shaftoe, Daniel Waterhouse, Eliza Countess de la Zeur, and countless other characters for 832 pages of exciting, complicated, and bizarre adventures.

Congrats to Karen!

Brian sent along this exciting news today:

I wanted to give you all a sneak peak at the announcement of Karen’s promotion (below). Official word will go out in tomorrow’s weekly email blast (which, appropriately enough, Karen has taken over responsibility of). I have seen it first hand, she is revolutionizing the organization – and this is a well deserved shout out for all her efforts.

Karen Dahl promoted to Operations Manager!

Please join us in sharing heart-felt congratulations to Karen Dahl for her well deserved promotion to Operations Manager! Karen's impact has been felt by each of us throughout Jumpstart. Her contributions to date through projects such as the Organizational Priorities and Planning, far exceed our earlier attempts to further this work without her. She is exceptionally dedicated to her work, and shows us every day the tremendous aptitude and passion she has for addressing the operational needs of the organization. We are confident that Karen will help us steer Jumpstart down the important path of infrastructure capacity building and stability. Congratulations Karen! And thanks for all you do!

Yay! Go Karen! I hope this means you'll still be able to come out and start up a San Jose chapter of Jump Start -- or at least come and visit the San Fran folks which is close enough to meet up with you.

Ilona's Blog

grr... my net access is down and I couldn't even get the free wifi in the park to let me in.... So now I'm down at Borders (which isn't so bad really) ... and so I'm finally getting today's email and I just found out that my knitting friend Ilona has a brand new blog. Congrats Ilona and welcome to the addiction... I mean the fun!

Circuits

Yes, I love the Circuits section of the NY Times. In today's:

For Some, the Blogging Never Stops
(I can totally identify with the "constant search for bloggable moments" - and I know that I have about 6 total readers and that it is mostly a conversation with myself...)

Fellowship for the Fiber-Fixated
Which has some nice online knitting links (have I mentioned that my knitting group is a Yahoo Groups-based group as well? Plus, I did buy my first pattern online (the hat that I just finished, and though I didn't sign up for the knit-along that Emy did, I did learn about it on Emy's blog so it still counts as a virtual knitting connection... :))

May 26, 2004

Stampin' with Emy and BobbiLynn

BobbiLynn and I went over to Emy's for some more stampin' fun tonight. She showed us how to make three very nifty cards and gave us lots of other cool stamping tips. It always makes me want to get right out and make things! Sorry the photo didn't come out better... you can see my silly hat (not the three-blister hat, which died half way through, but my second try at that hat pattern).

GFA Spring Concert

May 25, 2004

Making Electricity

Congrats to Tina on another great lecture in the Volunteer Lecture/Workshop series. This was the third, and featured Tony James discussing "Making Electricity: There is no perfect way". The lecture featured a summary overview of Electricity Generation, we learned about various ways of making electricity, and discussed the pros and cons of the major technologies that are likely to be used globally in the near future. Tony James, a volunteer at The Tech, is a retired GE engineer who spent 40 years in the electric utility industry. Here's Tina and Rika chatting after the lecture.

May 24, 2004

Shrek 2

I decided that I wanted popcorn for dinner, and since there wasn't anything on TV I decided to see Shrek 2 (mostly for cultural literacy and since Emy recommended it -- I can't say I really even liked the first one). But it was cute and funny and while there is still a certain amount of 3rd grade bathroom humor (for which I have a very low tolerance), there were some great lines and its definitely a feel-good movie. Plus, they added some great cast members (Julie Andrews as the Queen, John Cleese as the King, Jennifer Saunders from Ab Fab as the Fairy Godmother, etc.)

Iris

Mom just wrote to say Iris, Uncle Gene's housekeeper for many years, passed away last night. Uncle Gene was my grandfather's oldest brother -- he was a professor at Columbia and used to write crossword puzzles. Iris lived in his house in Amagansett. Mom sent along this fabulous photo of Iris with Uncle Gene.

May 23, 2004

Reversible Errors

Tonight and Tuesday CBS is showing a made-for-TV movie of Scott Turow's Reversible Errors starring Tom Selleck and William H. Macy! The CBS site has an interview with Scott. I read the book of course when it came out (in 2002?) (Dad gets to read them in proofs since he and Scott were roommates at Amherst) and look forward to see how the TV version comes out. It certainly has a great cast!

Great turnout!

May 22, 2004

Filoli

After planning to go for months, Tina and I finally went to Filoli today and I totally fell in love with the place and want to go back again and again! Even on a pretty grey morning, it was just a magical place. My friend Stan who I volunteer with at The Tech is a guide there and has been saying how wonderful it is for years, but I never made it up there (its only about 1/2 hour away). It is a 654-acre estate containing a historic house and sixteen acres of formal gardens. Here are a few of the photos I took.

May 21, 2004

Frozen Peas

Karen wrote this morning to report that Brian is recovering from having his wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. They put him under and took 3 out (his 4th has never appeared). He spent the rest of the afternoon becoming un-groggy, eating (pudding, apple sauce, Gatorade) and resting.

I remember that the best piece of advice I got when I had mine out about six years ago was to use a bag of frozen peas instead of ice, since they mold so nicely around your face.

Anyway -- best of luck Brian. Feel better soon! You'll be back to solid food in no time!

Happy Birthday Darin!

A happy birthday today to my friend Darin and congrats on all the success of Heads Up DC. Darin and I met the 2nd day of eighth grade (he missed the first day, but his reputation for being the smartest kid in the class preceeded him) and were good friends all through high school.

I was just telling Betty yesterday that my prom date (Darin) had gone to Princeton (and then transferred to Harvard) -- Betty's prom date is also Princeton bound...

May 20, 2004

Hartford - and now home

Since there was an extra hour until I had to be at the airport, Mom, Bill and I stopped by Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum which I had never been to. We saw a great exhibit called kid size: The Material World of Childhood and enjoyed their very nice gift shop. Here's Mom and Bill on the steps of the museum.

Then it was off to the airport -- where I found they had oversold my flight. Since this was one of the rare occasions where I didn't need to get somewhere at any particular time, hadn't checked any luggage and didn't have anyone waiting for me on this end, I volunteered to give up my seat and took a slightly later flight but have vouchers for two free tickets for later! It made for a slightly longer day, but was definitely worth it!

But I'm home and have posted a few of the photos from Carrie's graduation (where she gave a fantastic and very well-received speech) and Betty's play (another great performance) and will try to get caught back up on everything tomorrow and post a few more photos.

Voter Registration

As her senior project, Betty and a friend are working to register all the eligible voters at Loomis (yes, it runs in the family). As part of the project, they had CT Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz come and speak today to encourage the kids. Since we were up there for Betty's play last night anyway, Mom & Bill & I stayed over in Hartford, took Betty out to breakfast, and stayed to support her assembly. Here's Betty with the Secretary and the mayor of Windsor.

I think that its pretty cool that on google right now, the top hit for Loomis gives you:
Registered and Ready to Vote. 5/19/2004 - As part of their senior project, seniors Betty Stolpen and Lynnie Moore want every eligible ...

May 19, 2004

Yay Betty!!

After Carrie's graduation I rushed to Hartford and got there just as the curtain went up on a series of one-person shows by students at Loomis. Betty (who went second, so I had plenty of time to settle in) was fantastic. She showed a gallery of her life through selected artwork. Here's the final scene -- which she introduced as still being a work in progress (photo from Mom) and the curtain call.

Congratulations Carrie!

Congratulations to Carrie who -- as I write -- is currently at her graduation from Columbia. I'm here in her apartment watching Staffers on Discovery Times (since I don't get that channel at home) and will be joining her in a bit for the journalism school's ceremony where she'll receive her masters and, since she's president of her class, give her speech.

Front Row!

May 17, 2004

BobbiLynn on Ellen?

BobbiLynn and Glen are down in LA this weekend and today got to go watch a taping of the Ellen Degeneres show! I asked Tivo to record it so I could see if we could see her in the audience, but it didn't manage to change the channel! Oh no! Did anyone see it? Luckily, it looks like Oxygen will be rerunning today's episode in a couple of days, so I should have another shot at it (and I bet BobbiLynn's extra-cool Direct TV Tivo caught it).

Congrats to Laurel!

Congrats to my step-sister-in-law (Bigger Brian's wife, pictured here) whose recent documentary BUSTING OUT has been selected to premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival!

Here's the information she sent along:

The Seattle International Film Festival is the longest and largest film festival in the United States, and one of the top five festivals in North America. We are happy to be premiering in our hometown - where so many of you have supported us in making this show happen. And as you know, it's been a long time coming. We hope you'll celebrate with us.

SIFF may be the only Seattle screening of the show before it goes to television, so please don‚t wait. Tickets sell out fast. We hope to see you at the show!

Best,
Laurel Spellman Smith
Francine Strickwerda
Co-Producers

------------------------------

BUSTING OUT WORLD PREMIERE

WHEN: BUSTING OUT will screen twice: Wednesday, June 2 at 6:45 p.m., and
Saturday, June 5 at 9:15 p.m.

WHERE: The Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122.
(206) 325-3113 Located in Seattle's Capitol Hill district on the Northwest
corner of Broadway and Pine Streets, on the southern end of the Seattle
Central Community College campus.

TICKETS: Cost $9 ($8 for Cinema Seattle members) and can be purchased at the
SIFF box office at Pacific Place Shopping Center, 3rd Floor

Or online at:

or charge by phone: 206-324-9996

The film is showing in a smaller theater so we recommend purchasing tickets
ASAP! This will sell out. Also, PLEASE arrive at the theater at least 1/2
hour before show time to insure that you get in. Doors close promptly at
show time and there is no late seating.

ABOUT BUSTING OUT

Breasts have a unique ability to arouse, inflame and frighten - they can
nurture life and they can take it away. Busting Out is a provocative
exploration of the history and politics of breast obsession in America. Told
from the point of view of co-producer Francine Strickwerda, who lost her
mother to breast cancer as a child, the documentary is a revealing glimpse
into the world of being female.

End of another semester

Another semester is done! Just got back from my last Reference class, where Jean, Linda, Stephanie and I presented on Geographical Sources and had a tremendous amount of fun doing it.

We decided we needed to do everything we could to wake the class up (especially since we were 4th to present so it was almost 9pm) so we donned hats (with a "guide" theme -- a safari hat, an italian guide hat complete with feather, a sort of camping-guide hat and my new Miss-Marple-y hat -- and yes, it was mostly an excuse to go back to the very cool costume shop and visit my favorite sales guy there -- and Jean and Stephanie had their own hats already), gave out chocolate globes and a souvenir box.

We also asked four quiz questions at the end (actually had classmates ask them so we had double the class participation) and gave out Kinder Surprise Eggs as internationally-themed prizes to the people who answered correctly. It was definitely fun -- and somehow we managed to cover quite a lot of material on maps, atlases, gazetteers (my part), and travel guides. Plus, since my final example of a gazetteer was the Dictionary of Imaginary Places, I switched over at the end to my witch hat from Gizmo, which seemed to be quite a hit. Special thanks to Alan for all his advice on gazetteers.

Here are our questions so you can play along at home (no additional prizes though, sorry):

1. A student is completing a geographical treasure hunt and one of the questions is to determine the latitude and longitude of San José. Which
resource would you use?

2. A patron comes to the reference desk and asks, "I'm going on a
vacation to the Netherlands and would like to know the best places to go
for Paas festival celebrations?" Where would you look? [This is an inside joke, since the Paas festival figured prominently in our recent class reference treasure hunt]

3. Ten librarians are pooling resources to buy a house together in the
Bay area. In deciding where to buy, you'd like to know the magnitude and
location of earthquakes and the faultlines in the area. Where would you
look?

4. After determining the only houses your group can afford are those right on top of a faultline, you sadly say goodbye to your nine librarian friends and start looking for another area that has a similar climate to that of San José. Where do you begin your search?

Plus I just turned in my last Online Searching assignment, so I'm officially done!

May 16, 2004

A three blister hat

I was so impressed with the hats that Emy's been making -- and they've been flying off her needles so I thought I'd give it a try. I bought the pattern this morning from Chicknits for the Bottoms Up Bucket Hat and thought I'd make a test one with some left over blue-and-green worsted weight yarn I never got around to using. So I started it during knitting group today and first I cast on so tight that I had to cut the whole thing off and start over. I'm now about 4 rows into the rim and have three huge blisters to show for it (not my first knitting blisters, but I'm definitely doing something wrong to get so many so quickly from one project). Of course now I'm determined to actually have it turn into something... but we'll see... this may have been overly ambitious of me to try...

May 15, 2004

The Time Traveler's Wife

Just finished The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (not surprising because I haven't been able to put it down for the past few days). It was one of those books that just completely engrosses you -- where the real world seems so pale in comparison and you just can't wait to get back into it. It may not be for everyone, but I thought it was amazing -- dosn't hurt that the main character is a time traveling librarian of course. But its not really science fiction, but more of a love story. Mom - I think you'll love it. BobbiLynn, I have to admit I cried so maybe its not for you. Carrie, if you read it, stock up on a whole lot of chocolate first. But I hope that some of you read it so we can talk about it... hopefully some of the book group gang will have by our next meeting.

Really fantastic. Sigh. Sniff.

(and yes, I did finish a draft of the paper and sent it off to my group, so I haven't been completely slacking)

Campbell Day

Worked most of the day at the Campbell Library as extra help. Lots of good questions (most of which I felt I was helpful with). Found some interesting stuff on tidal pool animals (children's), enterococcus, Tupac, TS Eliot, and hairdressing, but was not able to track down someone's friend who used to live in Fremont but has moved to _somewhere_ since.

Its the Boogie on the Bayou festival (formerly the annual Prune Festival which I thought was more appropriate geographically) on the main ave in Campbell this weekend, so I peeked around at it after getting off duty and may stop by tomorrow after knitting. I did indulge in some french-fried artichoke hearts (mmmm)

Now, I'm taking a much deserved Time Traveler's Wife break before getting back to pulling together our group Reference paper on geographical sources...

For the librarians everywhere, who spend their lives in battle against the forces of darkness.

and she spoke a lot about doing research at the McHenry Library at UCSC and how amazing the reference librarians were there. (Go Margaret!)

I read The BeeKeeper's Apprentice a couple of weeks ago and forgot to blog about it (bad!). It was fantastic -- its the story of Sherlock Holmes' very cool young female appentice! Laurie King has written 14 books so far, and is at work on the next one in that series which takes place in San Francisco (which is where Holmes and Mary stop after being in India in The Game). I'd also like to read Folly, which someone asked her some questions about tonight.

She was a great speaker and it was fun to go to a Friends of the Library event (plus it was a lovely night to be walking around town).

Solectron Volunteer Fair

Just got back from a volunteer fair at Solectron in Milpitas where I was representing the Tech with Judy from HR. It was fun to see people I knew from the Art Museum and from volunteering at KTEH (next pledge drive is coming up in June!) We're starting to recruit people for the big ASTC meeting in September -- which is definitely going to keep me busy! It was a beautiful day and we were outside under a tent. There seemed to be quite a good turn out and I think we recruited a couple of interested people and signed up a ton of people to be on The Tech's email newsletter list.

May 13, 2004

Super Size Me

Actually, please don't!

Emy, Ilona and I saw the documentary Super Size Me this evening -- definitely worth seeing (especially after reading Fast Food Nation - which Carrie had recommend as a must-read) and definitely disturbing. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock spends 30 days eating nothing but McDonalds for three meals a day, tracking his progress, visiting doctors who are increasingly alarmed by what's happening to his liver and heart, talking to nutritionists and others. And if watching what he goes through isn't enough to put you off fast food forever, there's also some all-too-up-close-and-personal gastric bypass surgery. The stats are extremely depressing...

Running Unopposed

My friend Jean talked me into running for webmaster of our school's student chapter of the ALA (SJSU ALASC) -- mostly because I kept comng to her with a million ideas of things I wanted to do, like have more of an online community where you could see profiles of your fellow-students, a blog with an rss feed where we could share LIS-related information, profiles of alumni (like a 5-question-Fridays format), etc. But it turned out that everyone wanted to be webmaster, so the current chair asked some of us to run for other things.

You can read everyone's statements -- it does sound like it'll be a fun group to be part of! I'm hoping that Jean will stay on as the Treasurer or something (since most of us seem to have agreed to get involved to be able to work with her...)

Candidate Statements:

Chair: Catherine Cormier

My name is Catherine Cormier. Like many in the
program, I am a part-time student, and began SJSU SLIS
in Fall 2002. After graduation, I hope to be a youth
services librarian in a public library. As a future
public librarian, I am particularly concerned with
outreach and equity of access, and I believe that
public libraries have a social responsibility to
proactively reach out to those who do not even realize
they are underserved.

Although I am on the public library track, I am also
aware of the needs of students on other tracks such as
special libraries or archives, and I believe all
students regardless of career goals have much to offer

one another through their diverse life experience as
well as through their experience at SJSU. It is
through collaboration that we can all have empathy for
and benefit from both our shared and unique
experiences.

While I applaud the increase in entirely online
classes that have opened up SJSU SLIS to students in
the most remote corners of the state as well as to
those who work full time, I am concerned that the
erosion of classes with regular in-person meetings has
meant that students do not have the opportunity to
collaborate face-to-face and learn from one another in
a more informal manner. So that students whose
classes are entirely on-line have the opportunity to
meet other students, I hope to create informal
in-person gatherings once a semester in regional
cities throughout the state so that students who live
far from San Jose or Fullerton have the opportunity to
meet one another. I would like to invite recent SJSU
SLIS alumni to these meetings so that they can share
their experiences with new and current students.

Co-Chair: Laurie Briggs

My name is Laurie Briggs and I'd like to be your next
ALASC Co-chair. Although we may not have met face to
face, I have been one of your fellow students in the
SLIS program since Fall 2002. This semester, I've
been doing a practicum abroad and have realized how
very much I want to interact with more students in the
SLIS program. Like most of you, I am balancing
schoolwork, a job, family, and (sometimes) a life, but
still want to get as much out of the SLIS program as I
can. I believe that we students should be able to turn
towards our ALA student chapter for information and
activities that will make our experience pursuing an
MLIS a valuable one. Towards that goal, I look forward
working with other ALASC officers and members to make
that happen by communicating with other student
chapters as well as by talking to you. As ALASC
Co-Chair, my main goal would of course be to assist
the Chair in any way I can. I've been in a similar
position before, as an Under-Secretary General for UC
Berkeley's Model United Nations club, and enjoyed the
responsibilities and challenges that came along with
it. I look forward to the opportunity to devote my
energy (and I have a lot of it!) to a position that
requires a little bit of everything.

Web Coordinator: Mana Tominaga

My name is Mana Tominaga, and I am a first-semester
student in the MLIS program. I am currently working as
a freelance translator and webmaster. Most recently, I
worked on product reviews and was responsible for
online content as editor for Web Techniques magazine,
a monthly publication from CMP Media. Before CMP, I
worked at Fawcette Technical Publications and
DevX.com,
working on product reviews for Visual Basic
Programmers Journal, and managed all content for
DevX.com's C++ Zone. I learned about the importance of
user-friendly, accessible information architecture and
technology through such work, and I hope to transfer
such knowledge to librarianship. I am a creative,
energetic, friendly person and I live close to campus
and am online constantly. As such, I can contribute
extensive time and
energy to ALASC, and am eager for any opportunity to
help. Thank you.

Editor: Angie Miraflor

As the ALASC editor, I promise to maintain high
quality and ensure our students are well-represented
in publications. As a public relations major at SJSU,
I have experience in story pitching, writing, and
editing. I was the newsletter editor of a
campus-club, PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society
of America) in which I was a writer, editor,
photographer, and layout designer of this monthly
publication. Outside of school, I was part of the PR
Committee at the Sunnyvale Public Library, which also
created a patron newsletter. I hope to contribute to
the ALASC and the SLIS my skills in editing and my
enthusiasm to continue to make this club for our
students. Thank you for your vote!

Archivist: Ericka Gonzales

Ericka Gonzalez has been in attendance at San Jose
State University's School of Library and Information
Science since the Fall of 2003 semester pursuing an
Archival Studies emphasis. Prior to coming to San
Jose State University, Ericka attended Humboldt State
University where she underwent studies in English
toward her Baccalaureate degree. She held positions
as a Teacher across all grade levels and as an
Executive Director for the McKinleyville Chamber of
Commerce. She also enjoyed serving as a youth mentor
for parenting teen boys and writing columns for the
business section of the Times-Standard. Currently
residing in Stockton, CA with her husband and two
children, she works as a homeschooling mother and
intends on continuing her graduate studies toward a
Ph.D.

Ericka is a member of the American Library Association
and its student chapter, the Society of American
Archivists and its student chapter, the Society of
California Archivists, REFORMA, and the Association of
Moving Image Archivists. As such, she is in touch
with the profession and maintains a strong interest in
rare books and manuscripts, records, and moving images
archiving. It would be an honor for her to collect
and archive documents for ALASC and represent the
students in the Library Science program here at SJSU
as a liaison with other organizations.

Program Coordinator: Emily Reich

I am running for Program Coordinator because I would
like to work towards building a greater sense of
community among the SLIS students. Because of the
nature of the program, it is often hard to get a sense
of who our classmates are or to have any sense of
belonging to a bigger whole. I have heard many people
talk about how they would like additional ways to get
to know their classmates and to build up a network of
other students and alumni in the field. I am very
excited about the formation of regional salons and
would work to help coordinate them on an on-going
basis. I am currently working with ALASC and the
Alumni group to organize a trip to a San Jose Giants
Minor League Baseball game on June 13th (information
coming soon!) and look forward to working to organize
other events and programs as well.

Membership Coordinator/ Secretary: Nancy
Sheldon-Deegan

I have been a student in the SLIS program since the
Fall of 2002. During this time, I have come to value
the friendships I have made with others in the
program, but recognize how difficult this is given our
geographical challenges. I would like to be a member
of ALASC so that I can help my fellow students meet
others in the program and form these important
relationships. I also want to personally learn from
the experience and meet new people. In addition, I
was a Project Manager before entering the SLIS
program, and I was involved in student organizations
during my undergraduate days. I feel that I could use
this past experience to help in the continuous
improvement of the ALASC organization.

May 12, 2004

400!

Naked in Death

I'm way behind in blogging about books I've been reading, but I did manage to finish one last night, J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts)'s Naked in Death, which BobbiLynn loaned me. A bit more intense than the mysteries I generally gravitate toward, but I loved the characters and the fact that it takes place in a high-tech future. Its the first of a series of 16 or more, so I may be hooked...

The Good Guide (which I read for my Reference class paper and which will be useful for my work at The Tech)Miss Zukas and the Library Murders (I'm hoping the main librarian character gets a little less stereotypically uptight in later books)Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America by Laura Shapiro (fabulous! Makes me wish I had majored in sociology and gone on to do cool sociological research like that! Did you know that Betty Friedan and Julia Child came on the scene and published their revolutionary books eight days apart?)

Now that the semester is almost over, its definitely time for a "summer reading" meeting of the book club!

Gizmo Update

"And last weekend's Gizmo WYSIWYG fundraiser brought in more than $134,000 for the Tech Museum of Innovation. Good, but down from the $240,000 raised in 2001's lingering bubble."

[another update, from May 13's Merc:
"The Tech Museum of Innovation named Jeff Hawkins, creator of Palm and Handspring, as this year's Golden Gizmo award winner. Which, Hawkins told the crowd at last weekend's awards/fundraising dinner, only confirms an ongoing discussion between him and his wife: ``I am, in fact, a geek.'' Hawkins' gag prize, presented by Yahoo's David Filo, was a DVD player, personal organizer, calendar, clock, radio and other, well, gizmos, all fused to a wheeled luggage cart -- a trifle larger than the handheld equivalent that's Hawkins' specialty." ]

May 11, 2004

Wrinkle, II

Ok, I stayed up late and watched the rest of my Tivo'ed Wrinkle in Time -- and, while I can see there are some problems with the adaptation, it really is hard to beat a brother-and-sister pair saving the world from darkness. It has all the great elements of jr. high girl fiction -- the girl that feels like she doesn't fit in but finds that she actually is special, manages to save her little brother, fix her family, and even get the coolest boy in the class (who secretly worries that he's too normal and not different like her). I can see why I would have loved it when I first read it. Sigh.

More Census Stats

From the Resource Shelf, which reports on the Census Burueau's press release today citing "Seattle Residents Among Nation’s Most Educated"

With nearly half its population 25 years and older having at least a bachelor’s degree, Seattle has one of the highest rates of college education among large U.S. cities, according to a ranking of American Community Survey (ACS) data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

San Franciso ranked 3rd with 47.8%, Washington DC was 4th with 42.5%
and San Jose is 17th with 34.4%
Portland (which is on my list of place to consider next), ranked 12th with 36.8%
(rest of the rankings)

Lower East Side Library

Read a terrific article in today's NY Times about the Seward Park branch of the New York Public Library, "In Library's Back Pages, a Vivid History Unfolds" by Joseph Berger (A23). I have to wonder (and maybe Mom could tell me), if my great-grandfather used to visit that branch. According to mapquest, it is only a quarter of a mile from the Henry Street Settlement where he used to hang out with Lillian Wald when he was a boy. I may have the timeline off though -- looks like the library opened in 1909, and AR would have already been about 25, so I don't know if he was still living in that neighborhood by then.

May 10, 2004

Wrinkle in Time

Got home from class too late to watch very much of A Wrinkle in Time (which I had of course immediately asked Tivo to tape for me once I heard about it). It got pretty terriblereviews, but its always so interesting to see books I loved as a kid be made into TV movies... Brian had heard the NPR piece about it and also reminded me to watch tonight. There's also a Newsweek interview where Madeleine L'Engle didn't exactly say positive things about the production either...

Any of you watch?

I was doing research today at the library for my report on gazeteers, and looking through the Dictionary of Imaginary Places, but was very sad to see thay hadn't included Camazotz in it.

Congratulations Heather!

Congratulations to my dear friend Heather who is receiving her masters today in public health from Emory University. She's also been the Residence Life Educator there for the Office of University Housing. Now's she moving up to New York state somewhere to join her husband who's running the Suffolk NYCLU (ACLU Chapter).

Happy Birthday Uncle Doug

June 13th Baseball Game Invite

ALASC and the SJSU SLIS Alumni Association present:
Take me out to the ball game!

"At the end of the day, baseball and libraries serve the same purpose:
They bring us together as a community, elevate the human spirit, and
provide respite in the rush and craziness of our modern lives."
--Anonymous

SJSU SLIS students, faculty and alumni are invited to BBQ and Baseball at the San Jose Giants on Sunday, June 13th. It is an opportunity to relax after the end of the semester, to meet fellow students and alumni, to make new friends, do a little networking, and have a fun Sunday out at the ball park!

The game starts at 1pm and our hometown minor league Giants are playing the Stockton Ports. Bring along your family and friends! Kids under four are free.

The cost is $15 per person (in advance) which includes all the following items:
an Adult general admission ticket to the game, your choice of four dinner options which include ribs, chicken, numerous sandwich items, side-dishes and a non-alcoholic beverage. For an additional $1, they will upgrade the drink ticket to a beer or wine selection. The menu is available.
[Alternatively, you can purchase tickets just for the game at the stadium - $8 for adults, $4 for kids 12 and under or for seniors 65+]

May 09, 2004

SJ Merc Article about Knitting Group

Our knitting group was on the front page of the San Jose Mercury News today! A reporter and photographer came 2 weeks ago and talked to all of us. I'll have to go get the actual paper to see if any of the photos they took were included. My laptop cozy did get a mention :)

Only three of us showed up today though (probably since everyone else was out doing mother's day things)

Some quotes:

"The informal gathering is part of a national phenomenon that might be called, well, knitworking. Once perceived as the quaint hobby of grandmothers, the ancient craft has spun back into vogue with a huge boost from the Internet."

"They are putting up must-read knitting blogs and sending off knitting e-mail. And they are transforming the ancient art, using new materials such as ribbon, tofu-based yarn and even bamboo strands to create skullcaps, bikinis, and cell phone or laptop cozies."

"The new faces of knitting were gathered on a recent Sunday at Orchard Valley Coffee in Campbell. While soft pop music played overhead and laptops hummed, nearly a dozen women took out their needles and shared yarns."

Happy Mother's Day!

I thought that it was interesting that, according to Mother's Day on the Net - The Story, "In the United States Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic) as a day dedicated to peace." We could use more days dedicated to peace. Alas, a Blog posted a speech by Julia Ward Howe, 1870, which expresses the original sentiment.

May 08, 2004

Just like a refrigerator door

Most importantly, blogs invite people into the blogger’s life and become a key way for others to share in the blogger’s life. In many ways, blogs have the same dynamic, ”living document” role that the refrigerator door has in many homes: provide a central communications hub where information and content constantly reflect, augment, and update the lives of the household’s residents. A blogger’s family, friends, or fellow enthusiasts become the micro-community where the blogger enjoys micro-fame and the community benefits from the continuity the blog provides. A win for everyone.

Candy Store

After Mom and I took a quick trip to the Art Museum (to show her the Liza Lou kitchen, of course... plus it was 20% off everything in the gift shop for members and they were having a really nice jewelry show in the cafe), we drove up to The Candy Store Classic Car Club in Burlingame and met Bill, John and JR there. It was a fantastic space, with great cars, a cool club room and tons of old car-memorabilia.

May 07, 2004

Gizmo WYSIWYG

The theme was Abracadabra... It Works! And you were supposed to dress as your favorite Wizard, Magician, Inventor, business, nerd or in corporate logo attire. I found a fantastic costume store and we all dressed up for the party (thank you guys for being such good sports!)

May 06, 2004

Janine in SF

My super-cool officemate from my days at NMP (1997-1999) was in San Fran this week for an accessibility conference so I drove up there and had dinner with her at Antica Trattoria (2400 Polk Street). Here we are riding the cable car on the way back from dinner -- I don't think I've ever actually been on the cable cars before, despite living out here for four years now!
It was so much fun to catch up on what happened to everyone we knew over the past few years (lots of marriages, babies, and divorces, as well as a lot of spin-off companies since everyone got laid off from Commerce One which had bought Appnet which had bought NMP) Janine's now has a cool sounding job at Easter Seals, which uses Convio for their site (the folks that did Gov Dean's site.) She seems to be enjoying life out in Manhattan, Kansas and is deep into a series of books by Anthony Trollope.

May 05, 2004

Happy Cinco de Mayo

BobbiLynn and I of course forgot that it was Cinco de Mayo today until we arrived at Chevy's and saw the very long line. But it was definitely worth the long wait for our yummy cantaloupe margaritas and caramel empanadas.

The web site has lots of cheesy 80s stuff as well, including romance quiz and magic 80s ball. I took the career quiz and it said I should be:

Magazine Editor-In-Chief
Ambitious. Driven. Valedictorian. Do these words sound familiar? Calling you an over-achiever would be a huge understatement. Besides, you’ve probably known what you’ve wanted to do since you were like twelve and were the first person in your class to get a PalmPilot. Someone like you would never waste their time in a dead-end field. You need a fast-paced environment with lots of room for advancement and personal recognition. And what better way to show everyone just how much you rock than with your own byline and eventually your own magazine. You could so rule the world – of publishing, that is.

Some new features

Theoretically, you should be able to see who is logged on right now, and if you leave a comment, it should start to remember who you are and your name should appear in the list of people who are logged in (which would be really snazzy!)